


Unmasked

by soranokumo



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Canon - Original Game, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-06
Updated: 2014-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-24 09:02:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2575808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soranokumo/pseuds/soranokumo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud goes back to long-abandoned Nibelheim, seeking emptiness and an answer... Only to find the old mansion utterly destroyed, the well still standing, and questions. Original game canon only. Sephiroth x Cloud. PWP, with some violence and bondage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unmasked

Cloud sat on the top of the observatory with Nanaki beside him. He leaned back on his hands and stared up the sky above, the seemingly endless expanse of stars twinkling, even with the flare of the Cosmo Candle below them, lighting the walls of the canyon with warming orange, flickers of red. Nanaki sat on his haunches beside him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Nanaki asked, and Cloud nodded. "None of us know what it's like, there, anymore."

"Emptiness, and snow, and ghosts," Cloud said. "That's all. That's all I'll find."

"If that's what you believe, then why go? Why alone?"

His strange glowing eyes were still turned toward the stars. "I don't know. Everyone is busy with their own lives, I guess. No reason for me to drag anyone back into my past again."

"Not even Tifa?" Nanaki said, pointedly, but Cloud didn't respond. Nanaki waited, hoping he would, and then finally sighed, got up on his feet, and padded back inside the observatory. Cloud didn't say anything, the rest of the night; he only sat out, even when the desert chill became the brutal desert cold, even as the stars began to fade out and dawn began to prime her canvas with a dull gray glow in the east. He stood up, dusted off his pants, went inside to see Nanaki still asleep. Cloud gave the fire lion a scratch behind the ears, and then picked up his bag of supplies beside the door, slinging it over his shoulder. Then there was the giant white blade, resting against the doorframe, and Cloud lifted it as well, set it to his back.

He left silently, without any of the Cosmo Canyon people seeing him. He struck north.

***

The black peaks of Mt. Nibel hadn't really changed, even two years after Meteor's fall. They were only gilded with silvery lines of stubborn snow, holding onto the last of winter with all they had. If Nibelheim had still housed people, they'd be opening up the lines to let the chill waters of the first thaw flow into barrels, to be used for making their special wine.

But Nibelheim didn't house people. And as Cloud walked through the dark pine forest south of the town, he felt himself growing even more distant, disembodied, watching himself walk down the path. There were still patches of snow, hidden in the deepest part of the forest, but that would melt soon enough, he knew. He kept walking, until he reached the town gates, locked and rusted after so much time without use, exposed to the elements, gnawed on by the less pleasant inhabitants of the area. A strong punch from his hand knocked the lock clear off the gate. Then he still had to force the gate open, heard the shriek of the metal along the old stone, frowned at it with concern. But no monsters came charging out after him.

No ghosts came around the corners of the nearest houses, with hair streaming behind them and impossibly long blades at hand—

He blinked, cleared his vision of superstitions, and walked to the middle of the circle. The town was in wretched repair since the Shinra actors had left it. Without the constant presence of humans, the wolves and monsters from nearby hadn't taken long to trespass. There were surprisingly few, though, in the area. The ones he did see were nothing more than golden pairs of eyes, peeking at him through broken windows, doors that hung open or partially unhinged in their frames. A wolf barked, something gruff, something Cloud recognized as a warning to the rest of the pack.

So long as he was careful, he would not be attacked that night, and that was fine by him.

He still had some daylight left, so he walked around the periphery of the place, noting how the village's wall had come down in places, pulled apart by a dragon's claws. Still, there was no sign of a dragon still around, and as he continued north along the western wall he came across Nibelheim's small cemetery, overgrown with weeds and vines and old Nibel rose bushes. Of course, the Shinra hadn't even bothered with it when they reconstructed the town. He doubted they even bothered with a mass grave for the bodies they managed to recover from the burnt buildings.

Something about seeing those familiar stones covered with old snow and forgotten by those who came after the villagers made him shudder, his fist clenching at his side. But he knew it wasn't the villagers that he'd known that he mourned—not really. Only a few. The old lady at the tiny library. The kind old man who ran the inn. And, more than anything else…

He swiped the back of a hand across his eyes, then turned his back on the cemetery and headed back into the town circle, north up the stairs and to the wall that used to separate the Shinra mansion from the rest of the village. But it was gone, and Cloud frowned as he stepped through the broken gate and found nothing but blackened, burnt wooden remains. The debris had been strewn about the lawn by monsters or weather or both, but there was a large pile in the center, its shadow protecting a small patch of snow. And there was a massive hole in the ground where the old tower would have been, meaning the basement and its contents were gone forever. It was satisfying and disappointing at the same time—he'd always hoped to set fire to the mansion, with Vincent beside him. But at least Avalanche and Shinra had had a joint mission to secure the documents from the laboratory, so the information they had contained was properly recorded.

Taking a deep breath, he turned around and started back down the steps… only to see a figure standing on the water tower. At that his breath stopped, before he reassured himself that it was either a forgotten piece of equipment or perhaps even…

"Vincent!" he called out, only to hear a wolf answer, howling behind him up the path up to Mt. Nibel. The shadowed figure didn't answer, but as he came closer he began to make out more than a silhouette, and more, and…

"Really, Cloud… should I be jealous?" That voice. That voice, that sank into his ears into his brain and, even more than that, through his blood and into his heart. His breath hitched, and his eyes widened as the figure jumped down from the water tower, and started toward him as the rest of the sun's rays disappeared behind the mountains to the west… behind the cemetery. His eyes rapidly adjusted to the nether light of dusk, and the way the last light caught the other man's hair, highlighted the silver, and the early spring winds pulled at his hair and coat to blow them out dramatically. It would have been ridiculous, only Cloud could feel it tugging on him, too.

Sephiroth stopped before him, within arm's length, and heavy-lidded green eyes stared down at him. Despite the tone of his question, there was nothing in that expression, nothing readable, and Cloud just stared.

"Is this it?" Cloud said. "Have I finally gone mad?"

"Hmm… I find that question subjective, don't you? After all, was it a sane man who forced his way into Midgar two years ago, and took on part of the memory of his trusted, best friend?"

Cloud took a step back, biting the inside of his mouth to keep from shouting… shouting something. A denial, a threat—but he couldn't deny it because Sephiroth was right, dammit.

"So, are you insane? Do you think I'm a hallucination?" Sephiroth took another step forward, and Cloud did his best to hold his ground, but Sephiroth had a stride longer than his own and— "Or is it that you wanted companionship so very much you brought me here, yourself?"

"I would never—" Cloud started, only to stop when Sephiroth placed a gloved finger against his lips, and smirked at him.

"But you have. And you always will." His fingers stroked along Cloud's cheek, and Cloud felt frozen as he leaned in, and Sephiroth's fingers slid back into his blond hair, before gripping him, holding him in place. "I missed you, too… Cloud."

"No, sto—hmph!" And his lips were covered by Sephiroth's, pressed open, his head held still by Sephiroth's hand, immovable. But his body could still move, and he whirled his body with elbow and knee raised to force the other man away from him. There was a bite on his lower lip as Sephiroth stepped back, and then laughed, and Cloud touched his lip, looked down at the blood on his glove, claret red lit by small rivulets of Mako.

"That's real enough, isn't it."

Cloud glared up at him. "Why the hell are you here? I killed you—I've killed you twice—!"

"Mm, but you haven't, have you?" Sephiroth stepped closer, and this time when his hand raised Cloud raised his own hand to grab the other man by the wrist, but Sephiroth's two fingers still found and pressed, unerringly, over the scar… over his heart. "Not here. Not where it really matters." Sephiroth's eyes narrowed with pleasure. "You keep me safe and close… and you always will, won't you?" He leaned in again, his whisper slithering into Cloud's whole body, causing a shudder down his spine. "I will never be just a memory, Cloud. Not so long as you live. And if you were to die, I would give you the same honor… draw you out of the Lifestream, breathe your life back into you."

"But why?" Cloud hissed, trying not to break down. "Don't you want revenge? Don't you—"

"Do you hate me, Cloud?" Sephiroth said, watching him still with unblinking eyes, predatory and sharp. "Do you want revenge? You know it will do nothing. Your beloved mother will still be dead. Your beloved flower girl will still be dead. Zack will still be dead. Everyone who died because you cut them down—" and he ground the words out, put such weight on them that Cloud winced, averted his eyes "—will still be dead, their families mourning their loss… provided their families still live. We have blood on our hands, Cloud. It's in our nature."

"I'm not like you!" Cloud glared up at him again, released his wrist so he could step back, gain a little more space between them.

"Heh… indeed. But you're dodging the question."

Cloud blinked, his brain skipping back over the conversation, before he said, "W-what…? Do I hate…" And he blinked, suddenly at a loss. Because—because at one time, he thought he hated Sephiroth, and he thought it was that hate that would mean he would never forget him, would always be drawn to him. That was just as the Reunion began. And then… when he gave Sephiroth the Black Materia… he realized that the hate was another convenient excuse, another convenient facade…

He shook his head before he could finish that thought, concentrated on Sephiroth before him. The past didn't matter. The present mattered, the now mattered, and if this truly was Sephiroth again in the flesh then that meant he had to stop him.

And Sephiroth chuckled, and it was a familiar sound, something he remembered from a sunny day sitting in a chair in an office with his textbooks at hand—

"Stop me from what, Cloud?" he asked, reading his mind. "What do you think I'm here to do?"

Cloud raised his hand to the hilt of the Ultima Weapon, the touch of it calming him. If nothing else, he could fight. He could fight, and stop thinking, so that Sephiroth couldn't keep twisting things around on him. "You tell me. Are you still trying to become a god? Are you trying to revive your mother?"

"You are completely ignoring the fact that you freed me from that servitude," Sephiroth said. "You freed me from Jenova. You freed me from all those lasting ties… everything but you. Just as it was meant to be."

"If I could forget you, I would," Cloud said. "I'd kill you, forget you, and you'd never be able to come back then! Hells, I didn't call you back. I couldn't!"

"Why are you bothering with this? It's just another mask. Another fake. I thought you were trying to give that up. Your friends aren't here, Cloud. Not even the Turk, though you called out for him."

"You don't know what I want. You don't know anything!" And Cloud charged, drawing Ultima Weapon and swinging it in a single movement. The blade met Masamune with a sharp clang, and Sephiroth watched him with that soft amusement, the corner of his lips quirked up, the green eyes glowing more brightly with intensity, with intent. The sky was completely dark now, which only made their eyes seem brighter as they stared beyond their blades. Sephiroth pushed Cloud back and followed through with a downward slash—Cloud rolled to one side to avoid it, came up swinging, only to see that Sephiroth was no longer standing where he had been a moment ago.

Cloud's head whipped around, fully expected a counter attack from behind him, but there was nothing but the Nibel night, the gleam of golden wolf eyes watching from the windows. He didn't want to lower Ultima, didn't want to lower his guard, but no matter where he looked, he couldn't see him. He couldn't see Sephiroth.

"Come out and fight me!" Cloud screamed. "Come out and fight, you damned coward!"

"If I recall," came a voice from behind, just as he felt the familiar sting of nerves being cut on the sharpest blade, the give of skin, of flesh, of his body, the warmth of blood staining him and his clothes, "this is similar to that day, seven years ago. You came up from behind while I was admiring my mother, and stabbed me, just like this. Were you a coward then?"

Cloud stared down at Masamune's point emerging from his torso, but it was down at his side rather than straight through his chest, unlike… unlike the last time. Sephiroth was purposefully missing his internal organs. But that thought flitted away as the pain surged in, as Masamune pushed further through him, until he could feel Sephiroth's right arm around him, Sephiroth's right hand cupping his chin, Sephiroth's silver hair falling over his shoulder as the man leaned in to whisper in his ear.

"You're crying, Cloud. You're crying, and it isn't hate, is it?" Sephiroth leaned in closer, and Cloud felt his tongue slide up his cheek, tasting his tears. "No… it's sorrow. It's sadness. Why could you possibly be sad? After all, if you hated me, wouldn't this be exactly what you expect? Where is your anger now?"

"I…" And he was right. The tears had started filling up his eyes until he blinked, and then they trailed down his cheeks, and his heart clutched tightly in his chest. "W-what do you want?" he asked.

"The same thing you want," Sephiroth said, and Masamune flitted away in a stream of Mako, dissolving into green sparks that dissipated into the air. Cloud felt his knees buckle but Sephiroth's left hand came around him, covered the wound at his front and pulled him close. "Someone to set me free." A soft chuckle, warm and strangely kind, right in his ear. "You don't have to wear the masks around me, Cloud. You don't have to pretend to be anyone's knight in shining armor. You don't have to be a cold soldier of fortune. You don't have to be anyone's younger brother. You don't have to be someone's guilty pleasure." That tongue again, sliding along the shell of his ear, so that he shuddered. "Let me love you like you love me. Wholly. Completely."

"Sephiroth…" And Cloud felt the tears fall from his cheeks, fall toward the brick pavement of the town circle, one splashing against the glove that was covering his wound. It was surreal, watching the Mako from the tear rise up from the splash and swim into the wound. He wondered if it would heal. He wondered if it would matter.

"You're mine, Cloud Strife," Sephiroth breathed.

***

The kiss came with the heat of a restorative spell, accelerating the healing of his body, causing muscles and tendons and all else to stitch back together. If he wasn't so used to the feeling by now, it would be far more distracting, but Sephiroth had turned his head so that he could kiss him, and his lips were against his. When Sephiroth's tongue stroked his lower lip and then started to push inside his mouth, Cloud shuddered, let it in. He heard the clang of Ultima Weapon's blade against the bricks, but that realization was quickly forgotten as Sephiroth took a step, longer legs and longer body forcing him forward as well, step by step, while Cloud tried desperately to turn around, only managed it as he felt his back pressed against the base of the water well.

He pulled away from the kiss with a gasp, raised his hands only for Sephiroth to take him by the wrists, pin them against the wooden base of the well.

"How did you like my handiwork?" Sephiroth asked conversationally, even as one knee forced its way between Cloud's legs.

"You turned the town into… this?" Cloud asked, and Sephiroth shook his head.

"No. But I did finish what I'd started, all those years ago, by finally burning down the mansion. It seemed only fitting, and there was no one here to witness it. I should have waited for you." Sephiroth tsk'ed, and began kissing Cloud along the edge of his jaw, started down the column of his throat. "I should have been more patient. We could have burnt it together."

"I… I don't want to destroy things anymore," Cloud said, shutting his eyes and turning his head away, trembling as Sephiroth's teeth bit into his skin, started sucking until Cloud could feel the bruise rising. He refused to make a sound though, and only opened his eyes when Sephiroth pulled away, admiring the mark.

"They fade so quickly, still." His left hand released Cloud's wrist, went instead to cup his chin. A thumb ran over Cloud's lower lip. "Didn't you hear me? There is blood on our hands… both yours and mine. Nothing you do, even a life of servitude to others, will ever bring them back."

Cloud raised his hand to grab at Sephiroth's wrist, but he couldn't pull the gloved hand away from his mouth. "Doesn't matter. I have to protect the ones who are still alive."

Another chuckle. "Protect them? From what? After all… you've killed me twice."

Cloud's eyes narrowed. "S-stop it. I… I never wanted to fight you! If it wasn't for… for Hojo, and Jenova—"

"Hmm…" Sephiroth's thumb stroked his lip one more time, before pressing inside. Cloud did his best to ignore the slow invasion of his mouth, just kept glaring up at the glowing green eyes. "And what did you do to them?"

His thumb moved obligingly to let Cloud speak, and Cloud shook his head. "I had to fight them… There was never any choice."

"Ah. How sad, puppet. Your whole life… decided by everyone else."

"No," Cloud growled. "I decided to fight. I decided to protect! And…" His voice cracked, but he forced himself to go on, forced his voice out. "I decided to find you."

Sephiroth's lips curled, in a different way, not cruel, nor kind, nor mocking, just… "And you did. Just as I told you. You'll always be able to find me, just as I'll always be able to find you. Why fight that? Am I truly so terrible to you? Or is it the rest of the world, and their need for us? Heroes. Idols. Whatever you want to call us. It's so satisfying to cheer us—so satisfying to watch us drown. We were never more than tools for them, Cloud. Hojo. Jenova. The Shinra. Avalanche. And yes, your Tifa, as well."

Cloud managed to heave Sephiroth's hand away, and that gave him enough freedom to fling his body away from the well, rolling a distance before coming up beside the Ultima Weapon. He reached for the hilt instinctively, but Sephiroth only watched him.

"If they were truly your friends, Cloud… your family… would you have to wear so many masks around them?"

"Stop answering everything with questions!" Cloud snapped, but Sephiroth didn't stop, not even when Cloud raised the Ultima Weapon in front of himself. Instead, he started walking toward Cloud again, each step slow, deliberate.

"The one you wear around them as a group," Sephiroth started. "The one you wear when you're alone with Tifa, warm and yet aloof. The one you wear when you're alone with Valentine, yearning but keeping it to yourself. The one you wear in front of the man with the gun-arm, the Wutai girl, the fire lion, Captain Highwind… not to mention those in the Turks, or the ones you wear when you're in a crowd. The only times your masks have slipped, Cloud…" And he stopped just in front of the tip of the blade. "…have only been when you're around your birds, of late." He raised a hand, reached, ignored the tip of the Ultima Weapon cutting a clean red line into his chest as his fingers lightly brushed Cloud's cheek. "You're crying, again. It does hurt, doesn't it?"

Something about the sight of the blade cutting into Sephiroth's pale skin, just into his chest, made Cloud stagger back, pull away, shake his head as he watched Sephiroth straightening. If Sephiroth even noticed his injury, he didn't care to show it, and Cloud knew it would heal quickly anyway, just…

"I…" Cloud shoved the heel of one hand against his eyes, shook his head again. Somewhere nearby the wolves were howling, but they weren't in the town anymore. They must have found something else to hunt… or decided that this prey was too dangerous to pursue. "I'm not…"

"You don't have to hide here," Sephiroth said, holding out his arms. "There is no one here but the wolves and the ghosts and the mists… and they belong to the Planet, after all, which could care less about your masks as well." The smile was gone, the smirk, the amusement, all gone. It was only Sephiroth, standing there. "Cloud… come here."

"I…" His voice cracked and he heard the tip of the Weapon catching onto the pavement, and decided he didn't care. He didn't care. "I don't know what to do. I don't know why I came."

But Sephiroth did not move, just as quiet and soundless as he would be when waiting with Masamune at the ready. Cloud stared at him, in the mists that had risen between the buildings, at the heavens stretching out overhead, and the belt of stars crossing the sky just as they had all those years ago, just as they had—

He reached up with a hand, reaching for that sky, those stars, and that was the last thing that happened before everything went dark.

***

When he woke again, he was lying on his sleeping roll, on top of a bed that had seen better days, but was surprisingly steady beneath him. He pressed his hand against his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut before opening them again, looking around… and realizing that he was in the smallest house on the town circle. It was the facsimile of the place where he and his mother had lived. Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen, but neither was Ultima Weapon. It was still dark outside, though, which meant not much time had passed.

Sitting up, he tried to ignore the pounding headache in his skull, pushed himself off the bed and looked for his bag of supplies. He found it on the floor beside the foot of the bed, and reached over to start rolling up the sleeping roll again.

"Dream?" he muttered. "Did I stop for a rest? I don't even remember it…"

"Probably because it never happened."

He startled, whirled about to see Sephiroth there, after all, standing in a corner of the entryway in the dark. He had had his eyes closed, dammit, but now they were open and softly luminescent. Cloud couldn't even panic, this time, didn't have the energy to run, only started to turn his head to look over his shoulder for where the back door had used to be on this facsimile, when he saw that the back entrance had been broken down by a rockslide. Gods only knew when it happened, but it meant the only ways out of the house were through the windows or through the front door.

"Some things never change. You're still overthinking things." Sephiroth strode out from the shadows of the entryway, and his hands rose quickly to Cloud's bare shoulders, gripping them and shoving him backward onto the bed. Cloud let out his breath as he went down, but before he could roll out of the way the other man was on top of him, pinning him with Cloud's wrists pushed into the bedding, and he straddled one of Cloud's legs. "Let me remind you of what it was like, when we could be ourselves… together."

"Seph—" But that was as far as Cloud got before Sephiroth's mouth covered his, and this time Cloud didn't even resist when he felt Sephiroth's tongue gliding along his lips. He opened up, welcomed him in, closed his eyes and gave in to sensation, to feeling. And gods, it was good, so good he could forget the ache in his skull, so good to feel the slide of Sephiroth's tongue around his own, curling and stroking in its own way, and Cloud closed his lips around it and sucked.

_Don't close your eyes._

And the voice was a soft whisper of green, that voice he would always know. Cloud cracked open his eyes to see Sephiroth's gaze watching him, intensely, and his hair was falling all around Cloud's head and shoulders and his arms on the bed, a curtain of silver.

_There's no one here. Just you… and me._

Sephiroth pulled back from the kiss, pulled Cloud's right hand to his mouth, his eyes still watching Cloud's face, Cloud's expression, as he gripped Cloud's fingers with his teeth and pulled. Cloud gasped as his glove came off and dropped to the side, the sensation of the cool air quickly forgotten when Sephiroth's tongue slid this time along the lifeline of Cloud's scarred palm, up his index finger, guided it behind his lips and sucked. He couldn't stop himself from moaning, couldn't pull his other hand away to stifle the sound.

_You called out to me._

Sephiroth slid the finger out from his mouth, let Cloud's hand go while his own stroked down Cloud's face, down his throat, over the knit sweater that Cloud wore. Cloud realized his armor and sword harness and boots were already gone, Sephiroth must have taken care of them while he was out—and that was as far as his reasonable mind got before Sephiroth's fingers tugged loose the hem of the sweater from his waistband. The green gaze was still intense, and for once not on his face, but watching his skin as Sephiroth's fingers slid underneath the sweater, began pushing upwards. His fingertips grazed Cloud's abdomen, teasing touches, the flirtation of cool leather against heated skin. He stopped when he had pushed the sweater up to Cloud's arms, bearing his torso.

_So I came to you. Just as you always came to me when I called for you._

Cloud had a free hand but he didn't know what to do with it. He could try to resist, try to shove Sephiroth's face away, try to get out—but then Sephiroth leaned down to his chest and kissed the scar—

"Ah…!" The sensation was electric, causing his back to arch, press up against Sephiroth's body caging his. He forced open his eyes, his vision gone blurry again from tears, and looked down in time to see Sephiroth smirking up at him.

_You want this._

He leaned down again, and this time his tongue touched the scar, stroked up it. The effect was just as strong as before, but this time Sephiroth's free hand pushed him down, restrained him from arching off the bedding, and that wrenched a scream from his throat.

"How long has it been?" Sephiroth asked, his tone deceptively conversational again as Cloud panted. "How long, Cloud, since anyone gave you something you wanted?"

"What… I don't…" He blinked his eyes, felt some of the tears slide down his face, looked at that knowing gaze again without the blur. "Food, shelter… the chocobo… I have everything I need—"

"But nothing you desire. And you must desire something, Cloud. Everyone does." Sephiroth's fingers went back to stroking his chest, circling the flushed pink aureole of a nipple before pinching it, watching Cloud bite his lower lip in response. "And you need that, too. Without drive, without reason, you will drift… you will lose purpose… and if that happens, something else will be more than happy to give you one of its own."

"W-what?" Cloud managed, and Sephiroth sat back, pulling Cloud's left wrist up, and his arm with it.

"At first… The Shinra gave me a purpose," he said, his eyes hooded again. His hands found the knotted end of the bandage wrapped around Cloud's left arm and tugged it loose, before starting to unwrap it. "Then… Jenova gave me a purpose. I was tempered and doused until I became the perfect weapon, for all of them, and they drove me so hard I would have broken completely, if not for you." Sephiroth finally pulled the bandage free, and looked down at Cloud's arm.

"Avalanche… Myself… and now, it seems, the Planet as well…"

Cloud knew what he meant. He knew even without looking, though he couldn't resist when he saw how Sephiroth was staring at his left arm. It was a mess of black scarred skin and pale blue veins of Mako, and over the past two years he had watched it get worse, not better. Cloud bit his lower lip and turned his eyes away, until he felt a kiss to the palm of that hand, too.

"Will you let it give you a purpose, Cloud? Will you become a monster for it, as I became a monster for Jenova's sake?"

"No…" He shook his head, feeling that pit of fear he'd held ever since Meteor fell and his arm never got better… "No, I don't… I don't want to lose myself. I told you that."

"Good. Because if it were to try to take you away, I would have to stop it, you realize," Sephiroth said, holding the scaled hand to his cheek. "So… What do you want? Tell me."

He could feel himself biting his lower lip before he was consciously aware of doing so, would have bit it hard enough to bleed if Sephiroth's other hand hadn't brushed lightly over his face, stroked his fingers across his mouth.

"Tell me, Cloud. I want to hear it."

"I…" He struggled, ran his other hand through his hair, clenched his eyes shut as his hand gripped his hair. It only released when Sephiroth's fingers gently pried his hand open, guided it away, and at that Cloud opened his eyes, looked up at him. "I want… you." He swallowed, knew his voice was shaking, knew he sounded weak. "Nothing else is the same…"

"Hmm." A low, considering sound, as Sephiroth's hand stroked his face again, then settled over the scar, over his chest. "You say… you haven't saved any of them. But you saved me, Cloud." He leaned in, kissed Cloud chastely on the lips, and Cloud shuddered again as he felt Sephiroth's fingers curl over the scar, pulling on the skin. "You're the only one who could."

***

Cloud leaned up, after that, initiated the kiss himself, heard the hum of pleasure in Sephiroth's throat. When Sephiroth pulled away, pulling up on his sweater, Cloud didn't resist, let him pull it off and drop it aside. As soon as his arms were free from the the sweater, his hands reached up for Sephiroth's leather coat, pulled him down for another kiss. Sephiroth nipped his lip and leaned back up with a smirk, before his hands slid down Cloud's body, this time clawing down to his waistband. Rather than immediately going to take them off, however, his hand reached and cupped the front of Cloud's crotch, listening to Cloud bite back another sound of his own.

"So patient," Sephiroth purred, gently squeezing, watching Cloud squirm, "so good to hold yourself back so I can join you. And you like it, don't you? The restraint. The control."

"I… I like the feeling of fighting against it," Cloud said, and Sephiroth's hand slid gently upward along the line of Cloud's hardening cock, until he reached the belt around his waist. He deftly undid the buckle, slipped the belt free with a satisfying hiss of leather against cloth. Cloud saw what was coming before he really had time to react, before Sephiroth's hand gripped his own at the wrists, pinned them down and wrapped the belt around. Sephiroth didn't even bother with the buckle, only looped the belt and knotted it.

"Ah, what—wait—"

"Hmm, wait for what?" Sephiroth said, pinning Cloud's hands down again, this time with only one hand. "Should I bind your ankles, too? But it's more fun when I can spread you however I like."

Cloud could feel his face growing red at the thought, and Sephiroth's other hand went down again to the front of his pants, undoing the button, the zipper. He dragged it down before taking the waistband of pants and underwear into one hand and pulling them both down at once. They caught at Cloud's knees as he struggled, but Sephiroth shifted, hooked his foot in the fabric and pushed them down until they slipped off Cloud's feet. Cloud shuddered again, this time at the cold, but it also just made him that much more aware of Sephiroth's heat, his touch, the weight of him leaning over his body.

Sephiroth's gaze caught his own, before it went down his body, slowly, taking him in. Cloud knew he was blushing, could feel the touch of it, the heavy weight of it, and shut his eyes when he knew Sephiroth was looking at his cock, amidst his blond curls, his balls tight and sensitive.

"So patient," Sephiroth echoed. "I should give you some reward, shouldn't I? For being such a good boy."

"S-Sephiroth…" And his voice trembled, but it was all he could manage before a very different sound worked out of his throat. He could feel Sephiroth's tongue first, sliding slowly along the underside of his cock. It wasn't fully to attention yet, but it twitched beneath Sephiroth's ministrations, grew fuller, harder. The entire time, Sephiroth's fingers stroked his balls, slid tantalizingly down his perineum, stopping just before reaching his hole.

Then Sephiroth slid his length into his mouth, and sucked, and Cloud tried to press his hips upward but Sephiroth's hand slid up to his hip and forced him down, made him writhe. Cloud cried out, raised his head to look down at Sephiroth, to plead, but the glowing green eyes looked up at him from between his silver forelocks and the sound became strangled in Cloud's throat. He thrashed, didn't realize he was begging, a plea in his throat before Sephiroth pushed himself up, let Cloud's cock free from his lips. He leaned closer to Cloud's face, licked his lips, grinned mercilessly.

"What's that, Cloud?" he asked, his voice low, husky. "What do you want?"

"Please, I want to come," Cloud begged. "I need—"

"So greedy," Sephiroth said, leaning down, nibbling against his neck, listening to Cloud whimper. "But I like it when you're greedy for me… But what do I want, Cloud?"

"Want… w-want, come…" It was a struggle to get the words out, as Sephiroth's hand slid teasingly down his abdomen, not quite touching his length. "Me? Sephiroth, do you want… me?" Another shudder. "Want this?"

"Then spread your legs for me, Cloud, and let me have you."

Cloud rested his heels against the bedding and drew his legs up, heard the sound of another zipper being undone, and blinked open his eyes. "B-but Sephiroth, are you… are you ready?"

Sephiroth laughed, and Cloud gasped when he felt Sephiroth's hands under his knees, pushing his legs up. "Mm, believe me… I am fully ready for this. Are you…?" Bracing one of Cloud's legs over his shoulder, Sephiroth let his freed hand cup one of Cloud's ass cheeks, squeeze it before sliding to the cleft, gliding over his anus. Cloud shuddered, bit his lower lip as he felt that same gloved fingertip circle his entrance, and then slowly, so slowly, start to breach him. He gasped, opened his eyes to look at Sephiroth, saw the other warrior staring at him intently.

"I… but… no lubricant…"

"I've taken care of that already." A soft laugh, and Cloud trembled again for a completely different reason. "When it comes to you, all I want is to fulfill both our desires. And that means these ones as well." His finger withdrew, and the next time Cloud felt it the finger was definitely coated with something slick and faintly cold. He watched as Sephiroth's gaze lowered, to watch as his finger slid in and out of Cloud's hole. "Mm… watching you relax… the way your flesh turns pink… It makes me want you all the more, Cloud… seeing how much you want me… want this." The next time his finger slid out, it was joined by a second, and the two slid inside him, began to beckon, stroke against his walls. Cloud tried to relax, but he could feel his muscles start to clench around the fingers.

There was silence for a moment, as the movement stilled. Cloud opened his eyes to watch as Sephiroth's fingers withdrew, and his eyes widened at the sight of Sephiroth's cock, hard and ready. He licked his lips, heard a chuckle before the blunt head pressed against him. Gods, more than two fingers, but he wanted it—wanted this—wanted Sephiroth so much. He forced himself to breathe, felt Sephiroth's cock breach him, push inside, and he knew that Sephiroth was going as slowly as he wanted, knew he was drawing it out, trying to draw another reaction out of him.

He cracked open his eyes to look at Sephiroth, saw the confident smirk, and then glared at him.

"Oh? Is this too slow for you? Not enough?" Sephiroth said.

"I'm not going… to beg anymore!" Cloud growled, and Sephiroth grunted, thrust his hips, and Cloud cried out as he was full of the other man, could feel his cock inside him to the hilt. Panting, he watched Sephiroth's face, Sephiroth's expression, Sephiroth's eyes meeting his own, and… and…

_I know you._

Sephiroth began to move, his hips sliding back only a short distance before thrusting again, teasing, slow.

_No one else knows me like this. Like you do._

The slit pupils of Sephiroth's eyes were growing wider, too, and Cloud felt himself pulled in. He always felt that way, always felt that Sephiroth's gaze alone could capture him. Usually he tried to defend himself against it, tried to fight back against that look with a glare, tried to ignore the way that he could read those eyes like no one else.

_I'm alone without you._

And Cloud reached out with his bound hands, both scarred, one warped into something other than human, and Sephiroth obliged him, leaned over him so he could circle his legs around the other man's torso, so Cloud could reach up, touch Sephiroth's face with his bare fingers, trace over those cheekbones, those thin lips, the elegant bridge of his nose that he knew so well. Their gazes were still locked as Sephiroth began to withdraw and thrust more deeply, and Cloud circled his arms, braced his hands at the base of Sephiroth's neck, leaned up to kiss him as Sephiroth fucked him.

_I need you._

Need, lust, and perhaps even that thing he called love started to wind more tightly inside him. It wound around and around and he could feel each thrust brushing against him intimately, stroking him so that his spine jolted, his cock ached. Cloud pulled away from the kiss, ignoring the damp saliva between them, and swallowed before leaning up to whisper in Sephiroth's ear.

_I love you._

He was answered with a low growl, a bite to his shoulder, and he screamed, arched his back, felt Sephiroth start coming inside him. And he rode him, pulled himself into each thrust, clenched and unclenched and pulled and pushed until he felt Sephiroth's left hand slip between them and give his cock a single stroke… and that was all he needed.

He felt his back arch, arch enough to push himself against Sephiroth as he came, but he saw nothing—everything became heat, and movement, and he was screaming. He could hear Sephiroth's breath, the way it caught, the very low groan that wound its way out of his throat, and Cloud pulled himself against the other man's body and felt that… that moment. That moment of being one. Becoming One.

***

His vision began to clear of the spectacular heated light just as he relaxed back into the bedding. Sephiroth's body still caged him, but he could feel Sephiroth's forehead resting against the crook of his neck and shoulder. And he turned his head, kissed Sephiroth's silver hair, and then let himself fall back against the bed and stare upward at the rafters, marveling at the silence of the abandoned village. His legs carefully uncircled from around Sephiroth's body, and he could hear Sephiroth make a quiet sound as his cock slid free. But Cloud ignored it, pulled his wrists free from the leather, which had nearly torn already from the strain he'd given it from the way he had come, and then he reached up with his arms and pulled Sephiroth down on top of him.

Sephiroth settled against him with little resistance, and Cloud just remained staring upwards, one of his hands reaching into the long silver strands of Sephiroth's hair, stroking it, his other hand resting against the other man's back, pulling him close.

"Please," Cloud breathed, "please don't let this be a dream."

"And what if I said it was?" Sephiroth said, into his ear. "What would you do if I said that you will wake up, and find it just a fever dream brought on by Mt. Nibel's chill winds?"

Cloud closed his eyes, still stroking, still touching the other man. "Then I'll never wake up. Fever dream or not… I'll sleep forever."

A soft chuckle, and Sephiroth finally pushed himself up enough that he could look down at Cloud's face. His fingers wound their way into Cloud's hair, then, gripped and stroked him, and Cloud opened his eyes to see a smile on those thin handsome lips… a sad smile. A smile he remembered, from years ago. "Such a good boy you are, Cloud… but no."

"No…?"

"It isn't a dream. You're here, and I'm here, and so is the rest of the Planet… and everyone living on it, who thinks me dead."

Cloud reached up with his own hand, stroked Sephiroth's face. "Then let me 'die,' too. We can be ghosts together."

A soft chuckle. "And for how long will that fool your friends, hm? The Turk. The fire lion. If I recall, they'll live far longer than the others. And would you really be satisfied with that?" When he was answered with silence, there was a quirk of those lips. "I thought so."

"Then… what can I do?" Cloud whispered. "Can I not have my life and have you, too?" His jaw clenched, the old stubbornness kicking in. "These things aren't separable you know."

"Heh, indeed. So, then… would you prefer we go home together? Or shall we attempt to do this… differently."

Cloud knew what he meant by "home." And it was tempting. All they had to do was go to the Lifestream, together, and that would be the end of it. The end of it for both of them, and perhaps they could enjoy their memories together before being reborn. Perhaps they'd be reborn immediately. Perhaps they would linger. Perhaps it would only be oblivion for both of them, for what they had done.

But he remembered a smile in the light, a smile and deep green eyes… a smile in the rain, with steel blue eyes fading… He remembered a great blade standing guard over a patch of flowers, and a bottle of homemade potion lying among the ashes… and reading a book on a sunny afternoon.

"I… I can't do that. For them. You know that."

"Differently, then." Another stroke of his hair. "But we will do it together."

"Together…?" Cloud nodded, slid his hand then at the nape of Sephiroth's neck. He pulled the man down, almost so that their lips touched, could see the pale green eyes narrowing with contentment. "Then show it to me. A world where we can be ourselves, without masks. Where we can be free."

And he kissed him, deep and thorough.


End file.
